Square diverges from convention by making a girl named Lightning the lead heroine in the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII.Lightning is a reasonably attractive strawberry blonde and we think she likes the color pink. How else to explain the design of the FFXIII Lightning Edition bundle which features a pink etching of Lightning on the top of the ceramic white console? The lettering for "Final Fantasy XIII" located on the lower-left corner is also pink but the engraved "PS3" is grey which balances out the pinkish hues. Lightning looks to the left while hefting up a crooked sword that might be mistaken for an oversized fountain pen.

The FFXIII PS3 includes a 250GB hard drive, a ceramic white Dual Shock 3, and standard cabling to hook everything up. Pricing for the FFXIII bundle is set at JPY41,600 but vendors are charging a premium over the retail price due to potential shortages.

Dollar/Yen Cross
The US dollar's been traveling on a downward slope against the Japanese yen over the past few weeks which has been painful to watch. Every time we think it's going to bounce, any strength eventually peters out and the dollar breaks down further. It dropped 1.6200 against the yen on Friday and it's sliding again by 0.24 this morning. Due to the weakness of the dollar and our inability to peer into the future, pricing for the FFXIII Lightning Bundle is tentative and may change in the event the dollar's value continues to erode precipitously against the yen. Distributors may also charge a premium for the Lightning bundle if supplies are short-shipped from Square Enix. NCS will contact customers before processing any orders if the price changes to obtain re-confirmation.

The release of each and every Final Fantasy game in the past decade has been a major event in Japan with exhaustive media coverage, sales that are uncompromisingly strong, and legions of players who either love or hate the game.

NCS will never know what Lightning of FFXIII really smells like because she's, um, not real. That little tidbit isn't stopping Square Enix from cooking up a bottle of perfume that might be what Lightning wears...